I operated only on the dig modes to save my voice shouting into the mic on ssb, this compressor has put a stop to that. Not only am i being heard i seldom have to repeat myself in qso thanks to this piece of kit. Now i have put the dig modes on hold and concentrating on voice contacts. What a transformation this compressor makes, a must have for all 817 users.. Adi M3ONL

I ordered this kit expecting to have to solder all the components to the board, as I did not read the instructions beforehand ( typical male ham! ) I was pleasantly surprised to find all the surface mount parts on the underside of the board, already fitted. Only the through hole parts from the top side need to be soldered, and one large SMD cap. This took only 15mins, to build and test, with the results showing a real increase in RF power. There are 2 pots to adjust for mic gain and compression, the factory settings are a good place to start. No modification to radio or microphone are required. The whole assembly is light, and reasonably robust. IMHO, a very worthwhile addition for you FT8X7. Cheers vk3apw

Ordered the kit and was a bit apprehensive of the 'surface mount' capacitor that I would have to solder in place, I needn't have worried, it was the easiest surface mount component I have ever had the joy of soldering. The instructions were easy to follow and the kit was completed in no time. The testing instructions were clear and the smoke test was done using a bench power supply... all looked good, so it was connected to the FT817ND with a dummy load, and boom! What a difference to power output by the radio. The default settings for P1 and P2 (both centred) with the FT817ND SSB gain set to factory default of 50 worked very well for both metered Audio Modulation and RF Power Out. I tested a variety of mic waved about (animated speech) and mic held up close and tight and had consistent level on the radio's meter for both modulation and power. Next was a trip to my nearest SOTA summit, one I had already activated a few months ago. I took with me my new 20/40/60 linked dipole also from SB and started on 20m... without spotting I put out a CQ SOTA call and right away a reply came back from Carolina with a cracking report. In no time at all I had worked 20m, 40m and 60m and had great reports from most stations, on the whole I had better reports given to me than I was able to return. Once on 60m (first time ever for me on this band) I spoke to GB0SNB, we had a more relaxed QSO and had time to discuss equipment and operating method. We tested the processor in and out, we concluded there was a good difference of at least 2 S points (6db), I repeated this test with my mentor GW4VPX who had been monitoring my progress across the bands and had the same report. Overall I am VERY thrilled with this upgrade to my rig. It made working the bands in difficult conditions much easier. I felt much more in control of my activation, knowing I was being heard made it easier to direct the mini pile up I had started. Thank you SB and thank you chasers. 73 de MW0VPS

I bought the kit. No problem building. Even "smd" capacitor was easy to fit !. My friend G0PQB bought the ready made version. We tested compressor on 2 metres. We live a few miles apart but we do not have a good signal path. We both ran 250mw. Our "s" meters did not register but we went from quiet audio to very punchy audio when compressor was switched in !. We both had our microphones about 3 or 4 inches away from our mouth. Cannot wait to try it out on our portable HF operations !. Thanks from G0STR and G0PQB